The first thing to do when you slightly balls up a recipe but the results turn out well is give it a new name and claim that you meant to do that all along. This happened today.
I followed this BBC recipe for shortbread, just adding a half-capful of vanilla essence to the butter and sugar before I added the flour. Even with 25% more ingredients, shortbread is too easy. I then dropped the icing sugar box in the sieve as I was trying to scatter it gently, the end result being that the shortbreads got a decent coating of the stuff. This formed a frosting after 15 minutes in the oven.
Seriously. Shortbread. With frosting. If you’re thinking “too much sugar”, remember, this is shortbread. They’re short. I can’t be held responsible if you eat all of them.
- 125g butter
- 55g caster sugar
- 180g plain flour
- Half capful of vanilla essence
- Icing sugar for frosting
- Heat the oven to 190C.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth.
- Mix in the vanilla essence.
- Stir in the flour to get a smooth paste (or just get your hands in and form it all into a lump when it’s well mixed). Turn on to a work surface and gently roll out until the paste is 1cm/½in thick.
- Cut into rounds or fingers and place on baking parchment on a baking tray. Prick the shortbreads with a fork.
- Sprinkle roughly but generously with icing sugar and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until pale golden-brown. Cool on a wire rack.
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